skudiklier's profile picture

skudiklier 's review for:

Taste the Love by Karelia Stetz-Waters, Fay Stetz-Waters
3.75
emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I was really excited about this book because I loved these authors' other book, but to be honest this one just felt worse to me. The writing isn't great in a lot of ways, and I just kept being like, why is this happening? It felt so much less real.
Like, why does Deja think their relationship is real when the marriage for money thing was her idea? Why are the conversations between Lillian and Kia so surface level? Why didn't the neighborhood just vote not to sell, since they clearly didn't want Mega Eats to buy it? Wouldn't the neighborhood association people have known the property line cut through her house? Why do they have to live together?
Everyone seems to make a lot of assumptions and things feel really forced.

I did end up finishing the book and I liked it more by the end, but I'm just a sucker for romance in general. It's not terrible or anything but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I'll still read whatever the authors write next though, in the hopes that it will be better than this one/more like the first one!

Thank you to Netgalley and Forever for the chance to read and review this ARC.